Krokovsky, Yoasaf

Krokovsky, Yoasaf [Кроковський, Йосааф; Krokovs’kyj, Joasaf], b ?, d 1 July 1718 in Tver. Orthodox theologian and metropolitan of Kyiv. He studied in the Kyivan Mohyla College until 1673 and in Rome. He was prefect (1683–5), lecturer in theology (1689–93), and then rector (1693–7) of the college, which under his leadership was transformed into the Kyivan Mohyla Academy in 1694. He was also hegumen of the Kyiv Saint Nicholas's Monastery (1689–93) and the Kyiv Epiphany Brotherhood Monastery (1693–7), and from 1697 archimandrite of the Kyivan Cave Monastery. In 1707, with the support of Hetman Ivan Mazepa, he was elected metropolitan of Kyiv. In 1708, on the orders of Tsar Peter I, he was abducted because he ‘was known to be a supporter of Mazepa’ and taken to Hlukhiv, where he was forced to take part in the pronouncement of anathema on Mazepa. In 1718 Peter I suspected him of opposition and summoned him to Saint Petersburg; however, he died under mysterious circumstances in Tver en route. Krokovsky wrote a rhetoric textbook for use at the Kyivan Mohyla College (1683), the philosophical work Disputationes logicae per consonam dispositionem Organi Aristotelici (1686), Tractus theologia speculative et theologiae controversae (1693–7), and several shorter works.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 2 (1988).]